What Macnas does

Macnas is a registered Irish charity (RCN 20047962, CHY14582) founded in Galway in 1986 by Páraic Breathnach, Tom Conroy, Ollie Jennings, and Pete Sammon. The company designs, produces, and tours large-scale spectacle theatre — combining giant puppetry, street parades, pyrotechnics, live music, costume, and immersive performance — for festivals, cities, and public audiences. Its core product portfolio includes flagship annual Halloween parades in Galway (An Treun 2025, Turas Alf 2024, Cnámha La Loba 2023, Danse Macabre, Out Of The Wild Sky), touring productions (Rumpus!, Sleep No More, Orfeo), the Gilgamesh short film (a Galway 2020 commission), and an emerging film/online distribution layer (Macnas At Home). Notable audience scale includes 100,000+ attendees at An Treun and 60,000-70,000+ at other major productions, with casts of 150-400+ performers per event including volunteers.

The organization operates from its Fisheries Field, Earls Island headquarters in Galway with a lean core staff of 1-10, scaling production through associate artists, professional freelancers, and large volunteer performer bases. Its technology is craft-led rather than software-led: novel sculptural design, animatronics, large-scale puppet construction, and integrated audio/pyrotechnic show control, supported by an archive maintained at the University of Galway. Revenue comes from a hybrid mix: public grants (Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City and County Councils, Culture Ireland, Research Ireland, Community Foundation Ireland), tiered corporate sponsorship (main sponsor AIB, Platinum tier Lifes2Good Foundation, plus Gold/Silver/Bronze supporters including Smyths, PWC, Aerogen, Connacht Hospitality Group), commissioning fees from festival promoters and government bodies (Galway 2020, Dublin City Council via Bram Stoker Festival, Fáilte Ireland), and modest earned income from education programs (Macnas Óg summer school at €145/child, Macnas At School workshops, Macnas Youth Theatre, Drummers, Brass, and the C O L L I D E artist development programme). Audiences are predominantly free-attendance public spectators, with secondary customer segments comprising festival promoters, government commissioning bodies, schools, and emerging artists.

Name

Macnas

Legal name

Macnas

Website

https://macnas.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1986

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Macnas is a registered Irish charity founded in 1986 in Galway that designs, produces, and tours large-scale spectacle theatre — giant puppetry, street parades, and immersive performances — for festivals, cities, schools, and public audiences, funded by public grants, corporate sponsors, and education programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Spectacle Theatre and Live Performance

NAICS

Other Performing Arts Companies (711190), Other Performing Arts Companies (71119)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Performing Arts Centers & Presenters (Programming/Booking) (MPAGABAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Arts, Culture, Entertainment & Fan Conventions Organizers (THAHABAN), Arts & Culture Documentaries (MPADADAI)

Keywords

• Spectacle theatre productions
• Outdoor parade performances
• Large-scale puppetry
• Immersive street theatre
• Creative engagement programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Galway

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Performance and Event Revenue: Revenue generated from producing and presenting spectacle theatre performances, parades, and touring productions at festivals and events. The company creates work for their own events as well as for external promoters and festivals.
2. Corporate Sponsorship: Corporate supporters at various tiers (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze) provide financial support in exchange for association with the company's brand and events. Includes main sponsors like AIB Bank and partners like Smyths Toy Superstores.
3. Public Funding and Grants: Support from government bodies including Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Galway County Council, Culture Ireland, and other public funders for the creation and touring of productions.
4. Education Programs: Revenue from educational programs including the Macnas Óg summer school (€145 per child) and workshops for schools and community groups.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Macnas is an internationally acclaimed spectacle theatre company that creates and produces large-scale outdoor performances, street parades, immersive theatre productions, and short films featuring giant-scale puppetry, pyrotechnics, live music, and sculptural costume design. The company commissions, develops, and tours named productions such as An Treun, Turas Alf, Out Of The Wild Sky, Danse Macabre, Gilgamesh, and Sleep No More to festivals, cities, and cultural events. Complementing its productions, Macnas operates year-round creative engagement programs including Youth Theatre, Drummers, Macnas Óg summer school, Macnas At School workshops, and the C O L L I D E artist development programme.

Product overview

Macnas is an award-winning internationally acclaimed spectacle theatre company from Galway, Ireland, founded in 1986. The company creates transformative immersive work including parades, theatre shows, installations, film and performance art. The core product portfolio consists of large-scale spectacle productions such as An Treun, Turas Alf/Alf's Journey, Cnámha La Loba, Danse Macabre, Out Of The Wild Sky, Gilgamesh, Con Mór, Port na bPucaí, Orfeo, Savage Grace, Symphony For The Restless, Sleep No More, Memory Song, The Shadow Lighter, On the Night Journey, This Thunderous Heart, This Fierce Beauty, The Wild Hunt, Rumpus!, The Buried Book, The Boy Explorer, and Macnas At Home. These productions range from parades and outdoor street theatre to indoor theatrical productions and films. Supporting the core productions, Macnas offers educational and community engagement programs including Macnas Youth Theatre, Macnas Drummers, Macnas Brass, Macnas Óg (summer school for ages 7-12), Macnas At School workshops, and the C O L L I D E artist development programme. The company also provides Digital Resources for schools and families.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Macnas Youth Theatre: Youth theatre program developing skills in performance and street theatre, part of the core artistic programme.
• Macnas Drummers
• Macnas Óg
• Macnas At School
• C O L L I D E

Products and services

• An Treun (The Summoning of the Lost) A spectacular shape-shifting parade inspired by a Bram Stoker tale and the vanished Corncrake bird, exploring themes of culture, memory, and climate. Presented as the Galway Halloween Parade 2025 and reached over 100,000 audience members.
• Turas Alf / Alf's Journey A Halloween parade featuring Alf the Giant Newt (20x5m) with incorporated lighting, soundtrack and special effects, inspired by climate change and habitat loss themes. Presented as the Macnas Halloween 2024 production.
• Cnámha La Loba Halloween parade 2023 inspired by the legend of La Loba, a wild Wolf-Woman who collects bones and sings them back to life by moonlight.
• Danse Macabre A parade set in a magic-realist market bizarre exploring themes of death, fear, ritual, anger, mess, curiosity, and transcendence. Reached over 70,000 audience members.
• Out Of The Wild Sky A parade packed with love and magic where a Winged Prophet hovers between worlds, sculpting a new cosmos where birds and stars take flight. Involved over 300 performers and reached over 70,000 audience members.
• Gilgamesh A 22-minute short film shot on location around Ireland in 2021, inspired by the Epic of Gilgamesh. Commissioned by Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, bringing Macnas spectacle to the big screen for the first time.
• Con Mór, The Giant A giant puppet visit to Macnas HQ representing Con Mór from the legendary Tuatha De Danann tribe, also known as The Bird King.
• Port na bPucaí A tender, contemplative and hauntingly beautiful parade celebrating mystical and magical aspects of the West of Ireland, featuring an old man from the islands. Involved over 250 performers and reached over 60,000 audience members.
• Orfeo A theatre production featuring 15+ professional artists, 150+ volunteers, and 30,000+ audience members, with musical direction and pyrotechnics.
• Savage Grace A celebration of dreamers, schemers and engineers of imagination featuring towering ravens, barn owls, grey wolves, white witches with glowing lanterns and shadow puppets.
• Symphony For The Restless A show featuring the giant Crom, who is tormented by his own illusion and delusions, intoxicated with rage, disorientated, restless, and lawless.
• Sleep No More A Samhain/Halloween show where the membrane between living and dead grows thin, featuring Baba Yaga and darkly seductive melodies. Reached over 50,000 audience members at the Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin.
• Memory Song A theatre production featuring 40+ artists, 200+ performers, and 15,000+ audience with drumming and stilt performance elements.
• The Shadow Lighter A production with 25+ artists and 40,000+ audience featuring pyrotechnics, costume design, and ensemble performance with brass and drumming.
• On the Night Journey A theatrical performance with musical direction.
• This Thunderous Heart A theatrical production with an audience of 35,000 featuring an atmosphere of inventions inspiring mayhem, mischief and madness.
• This Fierce Beauty A show where a Mistress of Invention conjures a world of creativity and imagination, featuring 20+ artists, 170+ volunteers, and 35,000+ audience.
• The Wild Hunt A theatrical production with an audience of 30,000 featuring supernatural hunting imagery.
• Rumpus! A compact touring street show combining a dynamic visual aesthetic with a giant sculptural hare, performers, text, and live music for outdoor mobile performance.
• The Boy Explorer A production where an 8-year-old 15ft high boy goes on a wild hunt pursuing Pablo Picasso in minotaur form, encountering wolves, crows, and a butterfly.
• Macnas At Home A Bram Stoker Festival commissioned online program featuring a four-part video series guiding families through creating magical Macnas experiences at home, including story creation, mask-making, movement, and sounds and drumming.
• Macnas Youth Theatre A youth theatre programme developing skills for young people in performance and street theatre, part of Macnas's core artistic programme.
• Macnas Drummers Weekly workshops working with professional musicians, composers, and performance directors to push the boundaries of percussive interventions in story, landscape, and spectacle.
• Macnas Óg Summer school introducing young children (ages 7-12) to the art of spectacle, led by performance directors Judith Higgins and Miquel Barcelo. Priced at €145 per child for the week-long programme running Monday to Friday 10am-1pm.
• Macnas At School An education programme bringing spectacle art workshops to schools through performance, design, storytelling, and art.
• C O L L I D E An artist development programme providing training and career development opportunities in spectacle arts including design, performance, directing, metal sculpting, mask and prop design, animatronics, production, set design, costume, and set painting.
• Digital Resources Free digital resources including education packs, videos, infographics, and creative materials for schools and families to connect with Macnas spectacle shows.

Quantifiable outcome

• Productions have reached audiences of over 100,000+ in single events
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered commissioning partner, academic partner, festival partner, production partner and program partner.

• Galway 2020commissioning partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommissioned the Gilgamesh film project as part of Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture celebrations. This was a major commissioned work created specifically for the cultural year.
• University of Galwayacademic partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic institution partner supporting Macnas, with the Macnas archive maintained by the university.
• Bram Stoker Festival Dublinfestival partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerDublin City Council festival that commissions and presents Macnas productions including Sleep No More and Macnas At Home. Supported by Fáilte Ireland and RTÉ.
• Artichokeproduction partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerExecutive producer for the Gilgamesh film project, providing production support and expertise.
• Galway Culture Companyprogram partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Galway Culture Company for Career Development Bursaries program, funded by Government of Ireland under National Development Plan through Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Punchdrunk: UK immersive theatre company behind Sleep No More, producing site-specific immersive performances. Compares to Macnas's outdoor immersive direction and overlapping visual storytelling vocabulary.
• Spymonkey: UK physical theatre company producing comedic, visually striking performances for festivals and touring venues. Comparable in scale and aesthetic ambition to Macnas's street spectacle work.
• Fuerza Bruta: Argentine immersive spectacle show combining aerial performance, theatre, and audience interaction. Compares to Macnas in delivering large-scale, immersive live experiences that tour globally to festival and event audiences.
• Slava's Snowshow: Russian-origin international clown/spectacle show created by Slava Polunin, featuring giant balloons, audience participation, and immersive theatrical moments. A direct competitor in the touring spectacle-theatre category.
• Frantic Assembly: Irish/UK physical theatre company producing visually distinctive productions that tour internationally. Comparable in scale, ambition, and reliance on public arts funding.
• Royal de Luxe: French street theatre company famous for giant-puppet parades and large-scale outdoor storytelling. Royal de Luxe is the most direct international counterpart to Macnas in spectacle theatre, competing for the same festival slots and commissioning cities.
• 1927 (theatre company): UK theatre company combining film, animation, and live performance for visually innovative touring productions. Comparable to Macnas in fusing cinematic and live theatrical craft.
• Corcadorca Theatre Company: Irish theatre company based in Cork known for innovative site-specific productions including "Cork Midsummer" outdoor events. Closest Irish peer to Macnas in producing location-based theatrical spectacle.

Broad incumbents

• Cirque du Soleil: Global entertainment giant producing large-scale live spectacles including touring shows and resident productions. Comparable to Macnas in the category but operates at vastly larger scale and with permanent infrastructure.

Others

• Galway Arts Festival / Galway International Arts Festival: Major Irish arts festival based in Galway that commissions and presents large-scale productions. Macnas has a long-standing relationship with GIAF as both a producer and presenting partner, making it a key ecosystem counterpart rather than direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/MacnasIreland
• Facebookfacebook.com/macnas
• Instagraminstagram.com/macnas

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Macnas